Dessert Wine Pairings

5 holiday desserts meet their wine matches

Dessert Wine PairingsOne of the greatest things about the holidays are the cookies, cakes and pies. It seems as though nearly every corner of the globe has a special dessert to mark the passing of the holidays or the New Year.

Many of these desserts feature spices and dried fruits that once were exotic, not to mention expensive, and signified just how special these occasions were. For better or for worse, we can all now get things like ginger, cardamom, dried citron peel or Craisins, and we're prepared to use them. Over and over again if necessary!

There are few times during the year that I enjoy dessert wines as much as during the holidays. Not only is it cold outside, making the warmth of dessert more important, but the flavors of these desserts call out for a complimentary pairing. Having enough people around the table to enjoy and finish every bottle certainly helps as well. Here are some of my favorite pairings!

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Comments

You're Hungarian?!?, I thought you were Italian. These are all good choices, but I'm a sucker for sweets and partial to producers whose vineyards I've visited. So I'd add two suggestions to your list: a Vinsanto from any of the Santorini producers and a Kracher (they're numbered 1-X depending on the year) from Austria. And to pair with it? Nothing! Both are desserts in and of themselves.

All of those pairings sound amazing, and thanks for the recipes! For those on a more modest budget I recommend Apple Pie and Santa Julia Tardio, a late harvest Torrontes that is quite cost effective. Yum!

Good stuff, and well done for the promotion of dessert wines. For your interest I wrote a similar blog on dessert wines for Nalvina which you might like to look at. Try http://www.nalvina.com/blog/whats-f...

That isn't a Christmas Pudding! It's just a spiced cake (which looks similar to the one served with Madeira on that island). A Christmas Pudding is made with lots of dried fruit, usually soaked in alcohol, and is steamed for several hours to cook it - they are made a couple of months before Christmas so that they have time to mature (and are also fed with more alcohol during that time) and then are reheated on the day.

I'm surprised you didn't mention any of the famous Canadian ice wines from Ontario and Quebec which are great with all of the desserts you mention. Also, what about the super delicious ice ciders coming out from Quebec province? If you love apples, these will literally blow your mind! There is even a cidery that produces iced poiré (iced pear wine)...Totalement déclicieux! If you're not familiar with Canadian ice wines or with Québec ice ciders...Google the terms and you'll get lots of information...

if you're italian as you say, i am really surprised that you did not mention fragolino between the dessert wines....it's the classic dessert wine for cristmas, specially with panettone. and being half italian myself, but greek for the other half, i recently discovered that the white fragolino is exellent to pair with the traditional greek cristhmas sweet bisquits , the "kourabièdes" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:K...)!!!